328 



NATURE 



[November i8, 1915 



soon forget the vigour with which he associated him- I 

 self with every word which the president had used. 

 The confusion between education and book-learning, 

 the fool's paradise in which modern democracies were 

 apt to live when dealing with education and votes, 

 the want of intellectual curiosity in England, a lament 

 for the increasing disuse of the Bible — these were the 

 main points, apart from some interesting personal 

 reminiscences, of an unexpected but most welcome 

 intervention. 



Following the address came a series of papers on 

 the " Methods and Content of History Teaching in 

 Schools." Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, after a pointed 

 reference to the education section as the happy 

 hunting-ground of the amateur, dealt in the main with 

 the purpose of historical teaching. The aim of educa- 

 tion seemed to him less simple than of old. There 

 are no heroic figures t3'pifying the national or re- 

 ligious ideal- — a Leonidas, a Pericles, a St. Thon-vas 

 Aquinas — such as had given unity to educational effort 

 in the past. Instead of that, we talk of technical, or 

 intellectual, or moral training, emphasising the in- 

 dividual and losing sight of the civic aspect. The 

 current appeals to self-interest, upon which sections 

 of our countrymen were basing anti-political organisa- 

 tions, showed how much British democracy was in 

 need of mental and moral salvation. 



History in its right place w-ould do much in this 

 direction. The subject has greatly altered in its 

 methods and aims. Its procedure is now scientific. 

 It seeks for laws. It is the memory of the race, and 

 as such the finest school for statesmen. From the 

 civic viewpoint its purpose is threefold, as the subject 

 is at once a school of political method, a storehouse 

 of political precedents, and a basis of political pro- 

 gress. To serve such a purpose it must be wider and 

 more empirical in treatment. Prof. Ramsay Muir 

 regarded intensive work on a special period as essential 

 to the study of history. It was just this intensive 

 work which gave force to the old classical training, 

 and which helps it still to hold its own. But though 

 the intellectual gain from history could only come in 

 this way, the intensive study of a period must have 

 a background which would make the world of to-day 

 intelligible. Such a background was best found in 

 the unique character of British empire history and 

 the development of self-government in the last four 

 centuries. Dr. E. O. Morris protested strongly 

 against the views of Prof. Ramsay Muir, which 

 neglected entirely the working conditions of the 

 schoolmaster who has to deal, not with the cream of 

 creation who become professors, but with the average 

 boy who has to present eight subjects in an examina- 

 tion, failure in any one of which means failure in the 

 whole. He urged the abandonment of the rigid 

 division between English, history, and geography. 

 Until examination systems were reformed, no useful 

 suggestions can be made unless they are on exam- 

 ination lines. Mr. J. A. White dealt with the problem 

 from the point of view of the elementary school. Any 

 scheme should be based on three fundamental prin- 

 ciples : the matter must appeal to the pupils, develop- 

 ment must be its cardinal feature, and it must explain 

 modern conditions. Prof. T. F. Tout opened the dis- 

 cussion by expressing serious disagreement with some 

 of the papers. He did not share the dark views of 

 democracv held bv Prof. Hearnshaw. Unfortunate as 

 was the South Wales strike, it was not so bad as the 

 mutinv of the Xore. and the corruption of the ^^'higs 

 and Tories of the eighteenth century was colossal as 

 compared with the mild corruption and amateur log- 

 rollings of to-day. Prof. Ramsay Muir seemed to see 

 his own subject in false perspective — the ordinary vice 

 of the specialist. Whilst agreeing with him in his 

 condemnation of constitutional historv and of economic 



NO. 2403, VOL. 96] 



history as school studies, he was altogether out of jl 

 sympathy with his idea of beginning history with the j, 

 Reformation. Such a course would leave out of 

 English history the study of all those forces which 

 gave the England of to-day its special character. He 

 referred sympathetically to the special difficulties of 

 the schoolmaster, and incidentally expressed his belief 

 that the good schoolteacher of history need not be in 

 any sense a specialist on the subject. Sympathy and 

 intelligence are more important than special know- 

 ledge. 



Miss E. E. C. Jones read a paper on the teaching 

 of ethics and politics, which had to be cut short before 

 it reached the practical problems involved, and the 

 first day's proceedings were brought to an end by a 

 stimulating paper from Prof. R. S. Conway, who was 

 concerned lest literary, and especially classical, teach- 

 ing should suffer from the stimulus to technical and 

 scientific education which would come from the war. 

 The Prussian Realschiilen taught the German youth 

 how to build strategic railways, but not how to find 

 his way to the affections of alien subjects. 



The second day was given up to " Military Training 

 in Schools." Dr. A. A. David pointed out the differ- 

 ence between the cadet training of to-day and the old 

 military drill of the sergeant-instructor. The latter 

 system was never taken seriously either by masters or 

 boys. . The drill was usually bad, and bad drill is 

 worse than no drill. The new opportunities have com- 

 pletely transformed many boys who especially appre- 

 ciate the greatly increased chances of leadership. The 

 work had, moreover, a bracing effect on the whole 

 school. Mr. J. L. Paton entirely dissented from the 

 headmaster of Rugby on the general question of the 

 desirability of military training in school. He felt 

 this a particularly bad time for its discussion. The 

 emancipation from the drill-sergeant was no substitute 

 for physical exercises and games. The strategic point 

 of education is adolescence, and co-operation, not 

 struggle, is the keynote of progress. Lancashire, he 

 was sure, would have nothing to do with a system 

 which means officers from public schools and privates 

 from elementary schools. Compulsion in patches was 

 undesirable. The hope of the future lay in federation 

 and international co-operation. This movement means 

 we are to shut our eyes to social consequences and to 

 turn the nation into a barracks. War, like all other 

 forms of evil, was only temporary. Mr. A. A. 

 Somerville strongly disagreed with Mr. Paton. The 

 object of the movement was not to train for war, but 

 to enable the future citizen to defend his home and its 

 development, and, above all, the justification for it 

 lay in its educational possibilities — in cultivating the 

 powers of leadership, of taking- initiative, qualities of 

 vast import to the empire. The O.T.C. has provided 

 30,000 officers for the present war. There was no 

 thought of compulsion in the schools. Mr. Wood dealt 

 with the facts of the position in the colonies and in 

 western Europe. Prof. Hearnshaw, Prof. Bovd 

 Dawkins, Mr. Roper, Prof. Findlay, Rev. W. J. 

 Barton, and Mr. Richardson took part in the subse- 

 quent discussion. 



The third day's discussion on the " Education of 

 Girls with Special Reference to their Careers " was 

 perhaps the best of the series. There was a large 

 audience of people who were evidently keenly inter- 

 ested in the question, and all the papers reached a 

 high level both as to matter and mode of delivery. 

 Mrs. W. L. Courtney divided the possible occupations 

 for girls into three groups : — (a) Those requiring 

 university training, e.g. medicine, teaching, and the 

 like. The requirements of the university must in 

 these cases determine the curriculum, (b) Nursing, 

 social work, and public health service. School can 

 do nothing special here. A sound general education 



